Regardless of the topic, in most cases trolls and manipulators will try to provoke emotions in an individual that overshadow logic and critical thinking. Once they manage to push you onto an emotional path, they gain control over you and significantly increase your suggestibility. At that point, you become emotionally vulnerable and receptive to manipulation.

Trolls attempt to emotionalize their audience in many different ways, most often by targeting specific drives, needs, expectations, insecurities, and personal traits that are meaningful to the individual—areas to which they are sensitive and that are closely tied to values and emotions. For the sake of clarity, let us call these areas centers.

Such centers may include morality and the desire to be socially approved; fear; pride; decency; sexuality; personal significance; ambition; jealousy; the need for belonging; masculinity or femininity; security; greed; justice; anger; adventurousness; guilt; trust; and many others. All of these centers exist to varying degrees in each individual and are strongly influenced by one’s current life situation. Some people, for example, have a heightened sense of justice; others are more driven by greed; some may harbor doubts about their masculinity or femininity; others may be in a specific life context that amplifies emotions such as hope, fear, irritation, or uncertainty. This is why, for those who carry out psychological influence, knowing the individual—their psychological profile, environment, circumstances, and context—is so crucial.

These centers are directly linked to emotions. When they are activated through provocation—whether by specific words or phrases, images, narratives, or symbols—corresponding emotions are triggered.
If we allow them to be.

Mahatma Gandhi expressed a profound idea that should serve as a key principle for self-control:

“Nothing can hurt me without my permission.”

No one can truly inject emotions into our minds. Emotions cannot be imposed from the outside (unless we are talking about psychoactive substances or drugs). Emotions arise within us—they are the response of our consciousness and body to stimuli and circumstances. It is up to our self-control whether we allow someone to “press our buttons” and provoke whatever emotions they choose, pushing us into impulsive reactions, or whether we pause, “count to ten,” and calmly consider whether someone is trying to lure us into the swamp of uncontrolled emotions and keep us there.

When trolls attempt to activate centers related to decency and morality, they often appeal to social values such as patriotism, family, children, home, and duty—frequently through symbolic words and phrases like “Homeland,” “the future of our children,” “the common good,” “civic duty,” “egoism,” or “self-centeredness.”

Appealing to and using universal or social values in order to achieve a goal that is unrelated to those values—yet presented as their natural expression or consequence—is called instrumentalization of values. As a result, those values gradually lose their meaning and power.

Beyond instrumentalizing values, trolls may try to activate fear by pointing to a real, exaggerated, or entirely imaginary threat, while simultaneously involving something you are emotionally sensitive to in order to amplify the effect. For example, the following statement aims to activate fear of migrants and a desire for security by exploiting parental instincts and concern for children:

“Migrants have taken over our country. It’s already too late. In ten years they’ll be the majority, and our children will be studying the Quran.”

If you don’t have children but are religious, the phrase may be adjusted like this:

“Migrants have taken over our country. It’s already too late. In ten years they’ll be the majority, and our churches will turn into mosques.”

And if you are not religious, but are sensitive to issues of personal safety, especially regarding women:

“Migrants have taken over our country. It’s already too late. In ten years they’ll be the majority, and rape will become an everyday reality.”

Whenever you suspect that someone is playing with your emotions and values, it is essential to think critically:
Is what is being presented truly plausible? Is the claim exaggerated and framed in an overly emotional way, deliberately targeting sensitive points in society and in the individual? If so, it is very likely that values are being instrumentalized in order to achieve a specific agenda.

Since emotions always precede thought, it is normal to feel an emotional reaction first. What matters is that this reaction is later placed in the background, allowing space to reflect on whether the emotional response is actually justified and relevant.

If you are personally involved in a conversation, trolls will likely try to provoke you directly. If they know you, they may already be aware of your weak points and attempt to exploit them. If they don’t, they will aim for the most common traits at the top of the human hierarchy—intelligence, attractiveness, strength, popularity, money, and status.

The emotions they try to trigger can be of any kind. They may target your ego through praise or criticism:

• “I know you’re smart—you’ll understand.”
  (A compliment implying that, if you are smart, you must agree.)
• “Of course, you’re not expected to understand.”
  (Provocation, discrediting, suggestion of inferiority.)

They may also aim directly—or indirectly—at your insecurities. Often this is done through direct personal attacks, but the more refined approach relies on hints and insinuations. The more subtle the hint, the stronger its effect. Leaving you in doubt about what was meant—Was that about me or not?—can be especially powerful. The more insecure you are, the more you seek external validation, and the more your “center of gravity” lies outside yourself, the more effective these techniques will be.

Emotional provocation is constantly used in behaviorist strategies of influence, where the target is “rewarded” through induced positive emotions or “punished” through induced negative ones.